Friday, November 26, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope Dear Readers that yall have all (at least all my American readers) have had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I celebrated with family (minus my Dad and brother who are currently on a soccer trip to Brazil) and ended up conveniently stuffed to the brim.

 Currently I'm watching one of the most intense rivalries in SEC football.  The iron bowl Auburn vs. Alabama.

Enough about that though, you came to this blog to see what I made didnt you?  Well here it is:

Doesn't this turkey look yummy? Well this is one you won't feel sleepy after eating.  These cupcakes come with stuffing and all!

Four of the turkey cupcakes that I made


During the summer when I interned at a restaurant we had one dessert that absolutely everybody loved: peach and blueberry crisp.  Yet I am not a huge fan of peaches, plus I think I am mildly allergic to them, so I took this recipe and gave it my own twist.


I present Apple and Blueberry crisp with a scoop of vanilla icecream


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Rolls of Cinnamon

So  I made my very first attempt at "semi" homemade cinnamon rolls.  I say "semi" because I had a box for the actual dough that included the flour and the yeast, but I did have to add other ingrediants and actually knead the dough and shape it myself.

The dough with the cinnamon filling ready to be rolled

At first I was a little worried because I forgot to add sugar to the actual dough (trust me there is plenty for the sweet goodness that is rolled inside) but they turned out really well and you can't tell, thus I made a "diet" version of these yummy treats.


Even though I did a summer internship at a nice restaurant and occasionally made the hamburger buns for the burgers I completely forgot how much dough rises.  When I first put the rolls in the pan I was nervous that they would not be big enough at all.  Yet come 30 minutes they had more than doubled their size and were ready to be put in the oven.
After proofing and ready to go in the oven!

I could almost eat them before they were cooked



When there was like 3 minutes left of cook time I made the icing for the cinnamon rolls.  By simply combining powdered sugar, milk and some vanilla flavoring one gets a rather delicious icing.  I figured it would be best to leave the icing on the side that way each roll could be iced individually and thus providing the perfect roll for each serving. :)
Fresh out of the oven!

All in all I was rather pleased at my first attempt and maybe next time I will go with a full blown homemade recipe with a flair of Holley thrown in.


An individual slice with a hint of icing

Monday, November 15, 2010

Hoedown and Birthday Bash

So first of all before I go any farther I have some really good news!!!!!

I FINALLY GOT MY COMPUTER BACK!!!! Yes that means that posts (with pictures) will be more punctual and I can actually do something with my computer.  I has been over a month and it is finally fixed!!!!

Secondly I won Best Tasting in my first dessert contest!

It was for a church hoedown that was definately I lot of fun.

I made caramel cupcakes with brown butter caramel icing (and some of them had apple butter).  I even made the caramel myself!!




The roses came out prettier than I thought!


I also had a joint birthday party with 3 of my friends, our birthdays are in total 11 days apart and we all are turning 21 so we thought it would be fun to do something together.  We celebrated with a campus scavenger hunt and "mocktails" (7-up and grape juice)  I was going to make some kind of dessert for this but due to time I didn't get too.

I did manage to get creative with some fruit rollups though.... Take a look for yourself...




Its a Rose!!!!


I guess I was just in a rose mood these past few days.  With the holidays coming up soon there is definately going to be more baking in my future!

Trick or Treat!



So basically any holiday is a good excuse for me to make desserts! and what better than Halloween?

I was limited on time this weekend so all I made was pumpkin guts (aka orange died lemon bars) and Lady fingers.

First of all its not really Halloween till you carve a pumpkin!  I'll be honest to say that I have not had much experience carving pumpkins and I can be a bit ambitious at times, but with that said I think it came out well.

My friend Olivia and I carved one pumpkin while my roommate Amanda carved another. 



It turned out well until the owl caved in the next day so it just looked like someone punched it in the face.





We then had a Halloween party / Murder in The Dark Party (which is an awesome game)  and thats when I made my desserts --->


Pumpkin guts
And bloody lady fingers







I (stereotypically) dressed up as a chef for my halloween costume (hey I didnt feel like spending any money ok)  and we had an awesome time.